Ankle Exoskeleton

The purpose of the Ankle Exoskeleton research project is to study biomechanics of the lower limb as well as robotics to create a motorized device that is controlled by the electrical signals in the muscles to assist in walking and running movements. A prototype for the ankle exoskeleton is being developed using hardware and software that will allow for the desired active range of motion in the plantarflexion and dorsiflexion degree of freedom. The prototype is structured for stability in the inversion, eversion, pronation, and supination motions. EMGs are used to send signals to the servo motor and gear box that power the exoskeleton\u27s movements. The use of pneumatic artificial muscles (PAM) has been proposed to replicate the gastrocnemius and other muscles that are primarily used while walking to interface the ankle exoskeleton with the knee exoskeleton that was modeled by a previous team. The use of the PAMs would decrease the bulkiness of the system while increasing mobility

Capsule-Based Dropwise Additive Manufacturing with Pharmaceutical Suspensions

Current manufacturing of pharmaceutical products focuses on creating a standard dosage of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API); however, dosages often need to be altered or customized to account for a patient’s age, weight, comorbidity, and other genetic factors. A potential method for dispensing precise dosages of API suspensions through dropwise addition is detailed in the following paper. By using a drop-on-demand printing rig, a series of suspensions comprised of varying volume fractions of a micron-scale API in a carrier fluid were printed, and individual drop volumes were analyzed using high-resolution imaging. From this, capsules with 1 mg dosages and 100 mg dosages were manufactured. Completed trials yielded respective means of 1.043 mg and 99.946 mg of API being deposited across varying suspension compositions. The relative standard deviations of the 1 mg capsules averaged to be 1.51% and 0.30% for the 100 mg capsules. Further combinations of APIs and carrier fluids are continuing to be tested. The relative standard deviations of both dosage sizes are well under the 6% maximum variability imposed by the US Food and Drug Administration to regulate dosages of API, which provides evidence for the feasibility of printing pharmaceutical suspensions to create customized dosages for patient consumption

This is how it Feels: Activating Lived Experience in the Penal Voluntary Sector

Increasing calls for 'nothing about us without us' envision marginalised people as valuable and necessary contributors to policies and practices affecting them. In this paper, we examine what this type of inclusion feels like for criminalised people who share their lived experiences in penal voluntary sector organisations. Focus groups conducted in England and Scotland illustrated how this work was experienced as both safe, inclusionary and rewarding and exclusionary, shame-provoking and precarious. We highlight how these tensions of 'user involvement' impact criminalised individuals and compound wider inequalities within this sector. The individual, emotional and structural implications of activating lived experience therefore require careful consideration. We consider how the penal voluntary sector might more meaningfully and supportively engage criminalised individuals in service design and delivery. These considerations are significant for broader criminal justice and social service provision seeking to meaningfully involve those with lived experience

Mobilizing Metaphors in Criminological Analysis: A Case Study of Emotions in the Penal Voluntary Sector

Metaphors pervade media and political constructions of crime and justice, provoking responses and shaping actions. Scholarship in adjacent disciplines illustrates that emotion-metaphors offer unique insight into emotional and interpretive processes, valuably illuminating sense-making, problem solving, and action. Yet, metaphors are rarely analyzed within criminology, leaving an important opportunity for theorizing emotions and their implications largely unrealized. We explore the analytical and theoretical potential of emotion-metaphors for criminology, using empirical research conducted in the penal voluntary sectors of England and Scotland. Drawing on focus groups with volunteers and paid staff, we analyse the metaphors that non-profit practitioners mobilized to convey how their work felt: (i) absurd and unstable, (ii) vulnerable and constrained, (iii) devalued and discarded, and (iv) risky and all-consuming

A Differential Innate Immune Response in Active and Chronic Stages of Bovine Infectious Digital Dermatitis

Digital dermatitis (DD) commonly associated with Treponema spp. infection is a prevalent infectious bovine foot disease characterized by ulcerative and necrotic lesions. Lesions associated with DD are often classified using the M-stage scoring system, with M0 indicating healthy heel skin and M4 indicating chronic lesions. Current treatments utilizing antimicrobials or chemical footbaths are often ineffective and rarely cure DD lesions. Understanding the function of the innate immune response in the pathogenesis of DD will help to identify novel therapeutic approaches. In this study, the expression of the local innate host defense peptides cathelicidins and β-defensins was investigated in cows with DD and associated with the presence of treponemes and inflammatory reactions. Samples from active ulcerative DD lesions (M2) had considerable epidermal neutrophilic infiltration and increased gene expression of β-defensin tracheal antimicrobial peptides compared to control skin. Samples from acute lesions also had elevated local Cxcl-8 and TLR4 gene expression and abundant treponemes as identified by direct visualization, immunohistochemistry, and culture. Conversely, the anti-inflammatory peptide IL-10 was elevated in skin from chronic (M4) lesions, whereas bovine cathelicidin myeloid antimicrobial peptide 28 (Bmap-28) was increased in skin from oxytetracycline-treated M2 lesions. Experiments using cultured human keratinocytes challenged with Treponema spp. isolated from clinical cases of bovine DD showed that structural products from treponemes are able to initiate the innate immune response, in part through TLR2 signaling. These findings indicate that neutrophil influx, Cxcl-8, and β-defensin are key markers of active DD. Cathelicidins and IL-10 seem important in response to treatment or during the chronic proliferative stages of the disease

“How you keep going”: Voluntary sector practitioners' story‐lines as emotion work

From Crossref journal articles via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: epub 2022-01-16, issued 2022-01-16Article version: VoRPublication status: PublishedFunder: UK Research and Innovation; FundRef: 10.13039/100014013; Grant(s): MR/T019085/1Funder: University of Nottingham; FundRef: 10.13039/501100000837; Grant(s): 2018‐202

Image_1_A Differential Innate Immune Response in Active and Chronic Stages of Bovine Infectious Digital Dermatitis.TIFF

<p>Digital dermatitis (DD) commonly associated with Treponema spp. infection is a prevalent infectious bovine foot disease characterized by ulcerative and necrotic lesions. Lesions associated with DD are often classified using the M-stage scoring system, with M0 indicating healthy heel skin and M4 indicating chronic lesions. Current treatments utilizing antimicrobials or chemical footbaths are often ineffective and rarely cure DD lesions. Understanding the function of the innate immune response in the pathogenesis of DD will help to identify novel therapeutic approaches. In this study, the expression of the local innate host defense peptides cathelicidins and β-defensins was investigated in cows with DD and associated with the presence of treponemes and inflammatory reactions. Samples from active ulcerative DD lesions (M2) had considerable epidermal neutrophilic infiltration and increased gene expression of β-defensin tracheal antimicrobial peptides compared to control skin. Samples from acute lesions also had elevated local Cxcl-8 and TLR4 gene expression and abundant treponemes as identified by direct visualization, immunohistochemistry, and culture. Conversely, the anti-inflammatory peptide IL-10 was elevated in skin from chronic (M4) lesions, whereas bovine cathelicidin myeloid antimicrobial peptide 28 (Bmap-28) was increased in skin from oxytetracycline-treated M2 lesions. Experiments using cultured human keratinocytes challenged with Treponema spp. isolated from clinical cases of bovine DD showed that structural products from treponemes are able to initiate the innate immune response, in part through TLR2 signaling. These findings indicate that neutrophil influx, Cxcl-8, and β-defensin are key markers of active DD. Cathelicidins and IL-10 seem important in response to treatment or during the chronic proliferative stages of the disease.</p

Exploring the role of ectomycorrhizal fungi in soil carbon dynamics

The extent to which ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi enable plants to access organic nitrogen (N) bound in soil organic matter (SOM) and transfer this growth-limiting nutrient to their plant host, has important implications for our understanding of plant–fungal interactions, and the cycling and storage of carbon (C) and N in terrestrial ecosystems. Empirical evidence currently supports a range of perspectives, suggesting that ECM vary in their ability to provide their host with N bound in SOM, and that this capacity can both positively and negatively influence soil C storage. To help resolve the multiplicity of observations, we gathered a group of researchers to explore the role of ECM fungi in soil C dynamics, and propose new directions that hold promise to resolve competing hypotheses and contrasting observations. In this Viewpoint, we summarize these deliberations and identify areas of inquiry that hold promise for increasing our understanding of these fundamental and widespread plant symbionts and their role in ecosystem-level biogeochemistry